In other news... I'm enjoying my 360 but they really need to put the mouse/keyboard onto it ASAP. Games like Gears of War and Rainbow Six Vegas work fine with the gamepad, as much of the gameplay is not so much interested in your accuracy with a gun and more with your ability to use battle tactics. Tactics doesn't require joystick finesse.

But Call of Duty 3 multiplayer has been essentially kept in its PC format roots. You run around, you aim and you shoot. This requires joystick finesse. And ohhhh is it frustrating! The multiplay gameplay also feels like it's been given a more "deathmatch arcade" feel than previous CODs. So I don't recommend COD3 for it's multiplay.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

NWN2 is now $35 at Amazon.com. I think that's with free shipping, too. I'm really enjoying this game, but it's extremely, extremely easy, to the point that it's not really a game.. but an interactive novel.

Then again, if you have no understanding of the D&D rules whatsoever, don't read the manual or anything, then this game might pose some sort of challenge. Hehe. If you click the link below to make your purchase, I get like a few cents in commission. So yeah, gimme a few cents!

Me and Dogar (online friend) hope to tweak the game's difficulty using the Toolset. If we can do that, I think this game would be an instant classic.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Bought an Audigy 4 SE soundcard from Buy.com for $40. I bought this card solely for BF2142, which is kind of embarrasing. But I think it's worth it in the long run. Afterall, I'll be playing 2142 for at least another 300 hours. Heh :-P And shoot, I can always reinstall BF2, too.

Being able to enable EAX effects really enhances the game's sound in quality and in placement. When stomping around in a mech, the footstep sounds boom from the rear of me, recreating the fact that my mech's legs are behind me. The only downside to the soundcard is that there's no joystick port! I guess non-USB joysticks are too old fashioned, but I was still using my Microsoft Sidewinder for X-wing Alliance play. I guess I'll have to keep my old soundcard in there if I want to continue playing the Tie Fighter Total Conversion for X-wing Alliance.

I got an Xbox360 recently, and have been playing Gears of War and Splinter Cell: Double Agent. Gears of War is pretty fun, but I dunno why I got Splinter Cell. I don't even like stealth games that much! I guess playing multiplayer Double Agent back at the Gamespot After Hours event compelled me to buy it. Ah well, I should be able to get most of my money back through Ebay.

When I first started playing Gears of War, I thought it overrated, but I've warmed up to it since then. The way gun reloads work is pretty cool. Pressing the reload button a second time at certain times will bring a different result. If you time it correctly, you reload quicker. If you time it perfectly, you get a boost in damage. If you screw up your timing, you reload far slower than normal. Doesn't sound like a big deal on paper, but I find it a really fun twist on the shooter genre. In most FPS games, you reload your gun and it's a completely passive activity from your point of view, despite the fact that a real gun does require quite a bit of manual dexterity to reload quickly, especially under fire. So the reload feature of GOW kinda brings that experience to the player for the first time.

I'm also expecting Call of Duty 3 to show up in the mail, soon. I've enjoyed all of the previous Call of Duty's, so I feel obligated to play COD3, even if I am really tired of WW2. If the multiplayer isn't that great, I'll be Ebaying this one after I finish the single-player campaign a couple times.

Can't wait for the semester to end. Lots of games to play, and others to replay (Resident Evil 4 PS2 in 480p with 5.1 Digital Dolby Surround should be awesome!). Heck, even NWN2 has turned out to be a great game.